The Haunted_Edit Copy 4-7-17

Chapter Eleven
“Are you positive it’s okay for me to be doing this?”
Tucker shot me a glance from the driver’s seat, not even
trying to mask the grin. “Chelsea, Daisy wouldn’t have asked you
herself if it wasn’t okay. We try to avoid this, but sometimes it has
to happen.”
I stared out the window at the pale yellow bi-level with
brown shutters. The snow around the driveway had started to turn
brown in the weeks since I’d visited it last. My initial uneasiness
was creeping up my throat again, trying to choke me and trip me up.
“Stupid Jamie. How dare he get the flu tonight, of all nights?”
“So selfish,” Tucker agreed.
It wasn’t that I was scared to do the case. Well, okay, I was
definitely nervous. This was exactly the reason that the preliminary
investigators didn’t come to the actual showdown. I was unnerved
by the absolute terror that had been woven in Timmy’s words. No
one else here tonight had experienced that.
Although everyone who had reviewed the file we’d started
felt that there was no demon in the closet. In fact, most of them
seemed to be leaning towards it all being in his head. But LHPR’s
mission statement of open-mindedness and willingness to assist
forced them all to consider the fact that it could be a particularly
cranky spirit.
If they’d actually thought the activity was in any way
demonic or evil, Daisy wouldn’t have asked me to go. That was what
I kept telling myself on the drive up. Yeah, maybe something didn’t
sit right with me, but it was just because my emotions were biased
after the preliminary round. That was all. That had to be all.
“Hey.” My boyfriend’s hand on my shoulder jerked me out
of the black hole that was my brain. “You okay?”
I turned to face him and my heart gave a pleasant little
shudder. God, he was so damn gorgeous. And those perfect brown
eyes were so full of genuine concern and affection. Immediately
distracted from my reservations about the case, I nodded. “Yeah.
I’m okay. Just getting lost in that scary place in my head.”
119